Heaven and Earth Do Intelligent Work


surely there is a window from heart to heart
they are not separate or far from each other.
Though two earthenware lamps are not joined,
their light mingles.

No lover seeks union without the beloved also seeking,
but the love of lovers makes the body
thin as a bowstring,
while the love of the loved ones
makes them shapely and pleasing.

When the lightening of love for the beloved
has shot into this heart,
know that there is love in that heart.
When love for God has been doubled in your heart,
there is no doubt that God has love for you.

No sound of clapping comes forth
from only one hand.
The thirsty man is moaning, "O delicious water!"
The water is calling,
"Where is the one who will drink me?"
This thirst in our souls is the magnetism of the Water:
we are Its, and It is ours.

Divine wisdom decreed us lovers of each other;
all the particles in the world
are fated to be in love with their mates,
just as amber attracts straw.
Heaven says to Earth, "Welcome,
we are magnetized to each other."

To the intellect Heaven is masculine, Earth is
feminine;
whatever Heaven sends down,
it is the Earth's to nurture.
If Earth grows cold, Heaven sends warmth;
when Earth gets dry, Heaven pours down rain.

Heaven is almost giddy when it enters the world
of Time,
like a husband who goes out to find
something to bring home to his wife;
and Earth is a good wife:
it gives birth and suckles what it bears.
Heaven and Earth do intelligent work.
Why else would these two nestle like lovers
if they did not taste delight in each other?

The desire in the female for the male
is so that they might perfect each other's work,
and the world is preserved by this union.

Mathnawi III,4391-4415